The Bratz Take Paris
by TangledUpInStories
Summary: The bratz girls are now in college, they are all aged 20-21 years old. Still working on their Fashion Magazine while studying in college can be tough, but luckily, they've got each other's backs – always. Lots of opportunities for traveling the world on missions with Byron while maintaining their school, fashion magazine and on top of it all: how about the girls love lives?
1. Description

**The bratz girls are now in college, they are all aged 20-21 years old. Still working on their Fashion Magazine while studying in college can be tough, but luckily, they've got each other's backs – always. Lots of opportunities for traveling the world on missions with Byron while maintaining their school, fashion magazine and on top of it all: how about the love lives of the girls? **

Summary of the main characters:

Cloe (Angel): She's wide-eyed and bubbly, loves her friends more than anything in the world. She can be a bit of a drama-queen. She also loves soccer, shopping and having fun.

Yasmin (Pretty Princess): Her friends call her Pretty Princess because she rules. She's an earthy and boho hippie, Yasmin is calming force. She's kind, sweet and gentle and doesn't like too much drama. She loves animals, poetry, nature and music.

Jade (Kool Kat): Her friends call her Kool cat because she is cool and loves cats. She is a true trendsetter. Quirky and confident, she loves a challenge in fashion design, skateboarding and surfing. Jade makes a statement just by being who she is.

Sasha (Bunny Boo): Her friends call her Bunny Boo because she is into the Hip-Hop-Thang. Sasha has dreams as big as her personality. She wants it all: Fame, fortune and, of course, her friends. And she stops at nothing: she is hard-working and has an attitude!


	2. Chapter 1: A trip to Paris?

The Bratz girls were driving into the parking lot of the school. "There's a spot!" Cloe shouted. "Not that one", Sasha said in an angry tone, "I wanna park closer to the school. Do you want to walk this far?" Cloe shrugged her shoulders. "You're right, these heels are NOT meant to walk that far!"

Jades phone buzzed in her pocket. "Hey, guys! Listen up! I just got a text", but Sasha interrupted her: "Kool Kat, I'm busy! Ugh, there went the good spot," She rolled her eyes. Jade wasn't about to give up: "Guys, this is kinda important!" Sasha got even more irritated "Unless it's a sale after school it's NOT important, Kool Kat!" Jade decided she had to cut through: "It's from Byron!" The car stopped immediately and they all turned to Jade. "Well, what did he say?!" they asked at the same time. Jade sighed and started to read out loud to the other girls: "It says: "Girls! Long time, no see! Hope you had a nice summer. Would you be up for a gig in Paris?"". The girls are screamed together joyfully, until Yasmine suddenly got a thought: "But… what about school? We just started back in school, how are we going to Paris AND attend school? It can't be! We have to stay home" she said, looking sad. They all looked sad for a moment.

"But girls, we can't pass this chance," Sasha tried. They all thought about it. "We'll have to speak with the school. We'll just have to explain" Jade suggested. They all agreed.

"Girlzzz!" Dylan shouted at the end of the school hall. They all turned around and saw Dylan and Cameron walking towards them. Dylan putted his arm around Sasha, "Yo! Ya'll look so bumped, what's up?" Sasha shook off his arm with an irritated grimace. "Ugh, how can you be so fresh in the morning?" Cloe complained, "I'm barely awake yet, I definitely need coffee". Dylan looked at Cameron, "Well, Angel, it's your lucky day. Cameron brought an extra coffee with him… I wonder why…" he said sarcastically, while Cameron blushed, pulling out the extra coffee and handing it to Cloe with a shy "here you go". Cloe looked thrilled, "Wow, thanks Cameron! That's so nice of you", and he smiled awkwardly.

"Okay guys let's go! We have no time to waste" Sasha said and started walking towards the principal's office. "Woah, not so fast! Where are ya'll going?" Dylan asked. "None of your business!" Sasha quickly said, but Yasmin explained: "We got a text from Byron about a gig in Paris, and we DON'T wanna miss that chance! We'll just have to talk with the principal". Dylan looked impressed, "Paris? Phew, any chance we can come with you? We might be a help" he asked while looking extra sweet, hoping they might say yes. "We have helped you guys before," he added. Cloe, Yasmin and Jade thought about it, while Sasha said: "No way! Come girls", but they weren't sure. "Sasha, we might need all the help we can get" Jade explained. Sasha looked puzzled but said: "Fine! We'll talk with the principal and talk with you guys afterwards." Dylan and Cameron looked amused at each other.

They knocked on the principal's door and entered, hoping he would understand them.


	3. Chapter 2: Shopping time!

"So was that cool, or what?" Jade asked eagerly.  
"Totally! I hadn't thought the principal would be so cool with the trip" Cloe answered, and the other girls agreed.  
As they came around the corner, they found Dylan and Cameron waiting impatiently.  
"So, what did he say?" Dylan asked. The girls decided to make a little fun out of it, and they all made sad faces.  
"What? He didn't let you go?! Did you explain how important it was?" Dylan asked, confused.  
"Yeah, well… he didn't understand us, he thought it was a stupid idea" Jade said, looking sad.  
"WHAT? I'll show him just what importance means…" Dylan said, as he started to walk towards the principal's office.  
The girls managed to stop him before he reached the door: "Dylan, we're kidding! We're totally going! And so are you two!"  
Both Dylan and Cameron looked eagerly at each other. "For real?! Man, this is great!" Dylan shouted, and Cameron smiled brightly, "I'm so excited!" he said.

After school, the Bratz girls decided to head into the mall to do some shopping for the trip as well as getting a little snack. They decided to head to their usual spot for this: the smoothie bar.

"Hey Eitan!" The girls said, and he turned around, surprised. "Oh, hey guys! What's up?" They ordered their usual drinks and started chatting about the upcoming trip.

"We're totally gonna' need some new clothes!" Cloe proclaimed.  
"Yeah, but not just any clothes. I'm thinking jeans, so we can run!" Sasha answered.  
"Then we're gonna need sneakers as well" Yasmin said, and Eitan agreed: "Yeah, you can't run in high heels".  
Sasha turned to him, "Oh, excuse me! Do you think we always wear high heels? I'll let you know that I'm actually wearing sneakers just this moment!"  
Eitan started to blush, "I… eh… just thought… you know…" Sasha cut in: "Thought what, Eitan?"  
He blushed even more, "You usually wear heels to fancy things, so eh… you might be going to something fancy while you're there", he said while looking ashamed.  
Yasmin nodded, "Eitan's right! Who knows what kind of events we might be invited to undercover while we're there? We're gonna need heels as well!" She smiled to Eitan, and he gave her a thankful smile in return.

While the other girls chatted on about which kind of clothing they would need, Eitan turned to Yasmin in a lower voice. "So, Yasmin, a trip to Paris, ha?" he smiled.  
"Yeah", she said, "It's going to be so cool! Dylan and Cameron is coming as well."  
Eitan looked surprised. "Oh, really? That's… that's cool," but the way he said it made her rethink if he really thought it was cool. Something in his tone made it sound like it wasn't that cool.  
"I wish you could have come", she continued, "but I guess you're working… it would just be so awesome if you were there!" she added, hoping to cheer him up. It worked; he brightened up in a big smile: "Oh, you really think so?"  
Yasmin smiled back to him, "Of course! But it's only going to be a few days anyway, we're gonna be home before you realize we're gone, and then we are back at our favorite smoothie bar!" They both smiled brightly to one another, until Sasha said: "Well, girls, let's go shopping!"  
And with that, they all went ahead to find the perfect outfits for their mission in Paris.


	4. Chapter 3: Preparations

"Ugh, I'm sooo tired!" Cloe complained.  
"Yeah, but tired in a good way, Angel" Sasha pointed out, holding up her shopping bags.  
"Totally! We're gonna rock this Paris-mission!" Cloe said eagerly, while looking through her new clothing.  
"I wonder what the gig is all about…" Yasmin said, looking out of the window in their Fashion Magazine Office.

"I've got it! How 'bout we text Byron and ask him what it's about? Sure he can give some info on this, right?" Jade asked.  
They all agreed, and Jade pulled out her phone to send him a text.  
The answer came shortly after in a videotaped text. They all came near the phone, looking at Byron talking to the camera in his thick British accent:

"Hey girls! First, let me start by saying that you are all going to be very excited about this gig I've got for you!" He lowered his voice, while coming nearer to the camera: "Something is very wrong here in Paris. Yes, I'm here at the moment, I've seen it with my very own eyes: Nobody, and I repeat, nobody wants to do any modelling! It seems like all the models find an excuse NOT to walk the runway! Do you think I'm crazy? Well, I will see you girls very soon here is Paris where you can all see it with your own eyes!" He looked over his shoulder at something the camera couldn't reach. "Oh, I've got to go. Bye now!"

The girls looked suspiciously at each other. "No-one wants to rock the runway?!" Sasha shouted, clearly surprised.  
The other girls looked just as shocked. "That doesn't make any sense! ANYONE would wanna rock the runway, right?" Yasmin said, holding her hands at each of her chins.  
"I don't get it! I would LOVE to walk that runway" Cloe said, then she gasped: "Guys! This is our chance! We can head down there and walk the runways, and clearly no-one will be our competition, seeing as no one wants to rock it anyway, and I will be known, and I will become famous in no time! Oh my, I will get incredible outfits! Oh, I will have to walk the red carpet, I better start practicing, I don't even know how I will do that and…"  
Sasha interrupted her: "Angel, take it easy! Nobody said anything about walking the runway. Our mission is to solve this, not take advantage. And who said you will walk the runway?"  
Cloe was still out of breath from her long speech, and she looked around, as if she came back to reality.  
"Oh, you're right, I just imagined how awesome it would be."  
Yasmin pulled her arm around her shoulder to comfort her, "Cloe, what is awesome is that we get a chance to come to Paris on a mission, solving a mystery!" she explained to her, and Cloe nodded, as if she finally realized the importance of this trip. "You're right!"

They all started to work in the articles they needed to finish before the trip, so the magazine would be ready to be released before going. That way, they could start working on new articles while being on the trip.

The next days in school were difficult.  
The girls worked hard on their homework and making school-work ahead of time to catch up on what they would be missing while they were on the trip.

"Ugh, it's so HARD!" Cloe complained and sighed loudly.  
"yeah", Jade agreed, "remind me again why we're doing this."  
Sasha looked harshly at both of them: "Girls, we have an important mission in Paris! Don't you think it's important?"  
After being reminded of this, the girls continued the homework, this time a little more motivated.  
Though, no-matter how motivated they were, it was hard to push the thought of the upcoming trip out of their heads; they were too excited.

"I'm so glad we finished the last articles, so we have time for all this school-work" Yasmin said one of the last days before going.  
"Imagine having to make that with a deadline AND the homework", she continued, and they all agreed.  
"Let's finish the last of this school-work, and then we're ready to walk the French streets! I already packed all of my clothes, how about you guys?" Sasha said and looked around.  
The other girls weren't completely done packing, and they agreed to go home and pack the rest together after school.  
As Jade said; "That way, we're sure none of us forget anything!"


	5. Chapter 4: Dramatic Cloe

It was the night before the trip, and the girls had decided to have a slumber party at Cloe's house. This was both to calm the nerves about the upcoming mission, but also because they already knew they weren't going to sleep much anyway because of the excitement, so they had decided to make the best out of it: that included face masks, movies, snacks and lots of girltalk.

"Do you think Dylan and Cameron are as nervous as we are?" Yasmin asked the girls while they prepared the guacamole.  
"No way", Sasha said, "they're not the important part of the trip, they're only there to help us solve it" she added.  
Jade shrugged, "I guess they could be a bit nervous, I mean, wouldn't anyone be that over a mission?"  
Cloe nodded, "I am definitely. What if something happens? What if we fail and Byron don't want our help anymore?!" she gasped, as she looked ahead, into the living room, but her thoughts were elsewhere: "What if we meet the models, and we fall infront of them? What wouldn't they think – or if we accidently spilled something on their beautiful dresses, they would never give me any modelling tips that way, and they would all look at me stupidly, and all these models know each other internationally, so even if I run off to Germany, the models there will laugh at me because I WAS THE ONE SPILLING ON THE DRESSES!"  
She finally breathed and looked at the other girls. Sasha put a hand on her hips, looking at Cloe, "are you done? Because that is NOT going to happen. Angel, you gotta' stop overthinking this"

Cloe sat down while she tried get more calm again.  
Sasha rolled her eyes, "guys, this isn't that big. We're just there to solve a mystery, and it's not like it's the first time we tried this! Remember how we helped Byron before?"  
They all nodded, smiling at the memory of the past missions they had been on.  
"I say it's time to have girl time!" Sasha proclaimed.  
"Forget about the trip, tonight is girls night!"  
They all laughed and went into the living room to eat the snacks, put on face masks and watch movies.

In the middle of the movie, Cloe suddenly sat up. "What's up Angel, you okay?" Sasha asked, worried.  
"No, Bunny Boo! I think I may have messed things up!"  
The girls didn't seem to worry, they knew how dramatic Cloe sometimes could be.  
"I told Cameron I would buy a skateboard and pack with me! He had checked out the hotel-area, and there's a great skate-board place right next to it! And I haven't bought the skateboard!"  
She looked around as if the world was crashing.  
"Calm down, Angel, it's not a big deal" Jade tried, but Cloe looked at her, flustered, "Yes it is!" she answered, "I have to do something!" she looked around, grabbed her phone and went out of the door.

"Cameron?" she said into the phone, and he answered: "Hey Angel, what's up?"  
She explained to him.  
"Hey, no worries Angel, I've got an extra one" he said to calm her down.  
"No Cameron, you don't get it. There was a really pretty one in the mall, and I was going to get it! It will look pretty on the pictures for our magazine as well! And now it's too late! We're leaving tomorrow!"  
She was still panicking, and there was quiet in the phone for a while.  
She started to think he might have gotten so angry that he just left the phone.  
Then he finally said: "I'll go get it for you."  
She looked around the garden in the darkness.  
"Now?" she asked.  
"Yeah, it's cool, don't worry. I was going to head into the mall anyway to meet Dylan. We were going to check out the new CD that was released today from a rockband Dylan likes."  
This calmed Cloe. She explained what the skateboard looked like.

"Thanks Cameron, I owe you a favor!" She said and smiled. She could hear his smile in his answer: "Well, skating with me is favor enough! I'll see you on the plane tomorrow."

They hung up, and Cloe went inside, feeling like everything was going to be alright.

The girls giggled together; it was a completely Cloe that entered the room compared to the Cloe that left the room just minutes ago.

She looked flustered around.  
"What's so funny?" she asked.  
"Nothing Angel. Don't you think you're being a little dramatic sometimes?" Jade joked.  
Cloe sighed. "No, I mean… perhaps… I don't know. Let's just see the movie" she said while grabbing the bowl of chips, feeling a lot better than a few moments ago.


	6. Chapter 5: Bonjour Paris!

"Are we sure we remembered everything?" Cloe asked, looking around at the girls.  
"Angel, we went over this! Yes, we've got everything. Now sit back and enjoy the flight" Sasha said, while leaning back in the flightseat, closing her eyes and relaxing.  
Cloe wasn't all that relaxed, she still looked around, as if she was looking for another reason to worry.  
Since there didn't seem to be something to worry about, she finally also leaned back into her seat, relaxing.

Dylan and Cameron entered shortly after.  
"There you are!" Dylan shouted, while they made their way through the airplane.  
"Guys, this is awesome, I can't believe we're finally going! Guys, I've got an idea, I saw a place next to the hotel…" As Dylan continued talking about the idea he had gotten, which the girls didn't seem to like that much, Cameron went to Cloe, lowering his voice to her:  
"Hey Cloe, I've got the skateboard, it's in the suitcase. No need to worry 'bout that" he smiled.  
She looked up at him, as if he had saved the whole world,  
"Oh Cameron, thank you! I'll even skate an extra day because of this."  
He looked amused, "That'll be great!"  
He found his and Dylans seats, but they sat far away from the girls.  
They looked back at them, but there was nothing to do: they had those seats, and they needed to accept that.  
The girls giggled by looking at them, all flustered because they couldn't sit next to the girls.  
"Look at them, all up there" Jade laughed.  
"Gives us some well-deserved girl-time", Sasha said.

They finally arrived and were driven to the hotel. They all gasped all the way at the beautiful sight outside; Paris' streets were breathtaking.

When they finally arrived at the hotel, they were all way too tired to check out the area, so they all headed up at their rooms to sleep, and the next day they would all meet up with Byron to hear more about the mission.

After breakfast early in the morning, they went ahead to the lobby where they would meet up with Byron. He was very punctual, so it was no surprise that he was already there when they came down to the lobby.

"Hello girls! You look absolutely stunning! Well, are you ready for this mission?"  
They all nodded excitedly.  
"Brilliant! First I have some gadgets I would like you to have. The invisible lipstick! Now, you already know this gadget, it's very smart. Go ahead, try it and see if you won't remember!"  
He handed the girls the lipsticks that looked very normal until they wrote with them, and nothing seem to happen, until he covered the spot to make it dark, and then their writing appeared, lightening up!  
"Cool! I remember this!" Jade said.  
The other girls nodded, while Cameron and Dylan still looked at the lipsticks, trying to find out how exactly they work.  
Byron handed them other small gadgets that could turn out to be helpful.

"Now, the next step that I will ask you to do is very simple: you go to the party near the hotel tonight! It's very important you go undercover, so no one get suspicious. So, simply go and party, check the place out, see if there's anything looking unnormal. Are you up for it?"  
The girls looked at each other, happy about this task.  
The boys also looked thrilled.  
"We're on it!" Jade said.  
They all went upstairs to get ready for the big evening.


	7. Chapter 6: Flirty France

"Is this cool, or what?!" Jade said eargerly.  
"Totally! I definitely need a drink" Cloe said, looking around for the bar.  
It was a fancy place, everything looked neat and exclusive.  
Naturally, they all wore fancy dresses for this as well and high heels.

Cloe was headed to the bar and Cameron decided to also get a drink, so he started to follow her.  
"Are you as excited for this trip as Dylan and I are?" he asked, simply to start a conversation.  
"Of course, Cameron! Once we have solved this case, we can make the best article this year! I'm so excited."  
She looked around the bar, not sure what to order.  
"Do you want me to order you something, Angel?" Cameron said, looking softly at her.  
Cloe looked harshly at him, "just so you know it, I can order my own drinks" she said.  
He looked down and blushed. "Oh… I'm sorry," he mumled, embarrassed.  
Cloe felt bad, she hadn't meant it like that, it was just those soft eyes that made her feeling strangely, and her immediate reaction was anger. Yet, she couldn't really take it back, and she didn't feel like saying sorry, somehow it would feel like losing, even if there was no competition. Instead, she simply looked straight ahead and ordered whatever drink she felt like. Something pink and sweet. Then, she turned around, walking away without looking at Cameron; she didn't know what to say after this.

"Angel, did you say something to Cameron? He hasn't moved from the bar, he hasn't even ordered! He looks… sad" Sasha said, looking confused.  
Cloe bit her lip. "No, he'll be fine" she said, slightly embarrassed over herself.  
She looked around, looking for a change of subject. She saw Dylan dancing with 2 girls in the corner.  
"Ugh, typically Dylan. Doesn't he realize that we're actually on a mission? It's like he doesn't even understand how important this is" she said, while sipping her drink.  
Sasha looked at the drink with an arched eyebrow. "And that drink is gonna help the case?" she asked sarcastilly.  
"Hey, I have to be undercover!" Cloe said, defending herself.  
"Sure," Sasha simply said, while looking at Dylan dancing. She looked worried for a moment, then it turned into anger. "Seriously, it's like in high school. What's the big deal? It's like he didn't grow up, not even a bit!" Sasha said, angrily.

"Hey, Bunno Boo, calm down. Let him dance, if it's so important to him", Cloe tried, but Sasha sent her a harsh, angry look.  
"You think that's okay? No way! Besides, TWO girls? That's just downright wrong!" she rolled her eyes, taking the drink from Cloe's hands and emptied the glass, before storming away, trying to focus on the task.

Jade and Yasmin were already going around, looking for evidence and anything that could lead them on to what could be going on. They even talked with some people at the party, trying to find out information.  
Cloe stood alone, looked back at the bar, but Cameron were nowhere to be seen.  
She started to feel bad; her stomach twisted and suddenly hurt. Where was he? She scanned the room, and found him; dancing with a girl. She had black long hair, a nose-piercing and a crop top on as well as tight jeans, all in black. She laughed loudly at something Cameron had said, while putting her hand on his shoulder. Cloe suddenly felt very sick at this sight. Was it the drink, or the sight of those together?

Cameron looked amused. Cloe didn't know what to do; she was about to go and interrupt them, wanting to stop whatever was going on, but stood still, looking all shocked at them. She decided to walk nearer, in a distant enough to hear them but not close enough to interrupt.

The girl was French; she had a French sensual accent. Cloe suddenly hated, despised, French accents, French girls and everything French. _I can't believe them_, she thought. She rolled her eyes and went to order a new drink before going back to that spot where she was able to hear their conversation.

"_Alors_', what do a 'andsome man like yu' do around 'ere?" she asked, still placing her hand on his shoulders.  
"Well," Cameron started, and Cloe listened closely; if he revealed their undercover now…  
"We're kinda on a mi… I mean, just out partying, you know" he said, when he realized how closely he had been to reveal everything about them.  
"Oh la la, 'ow fun!" She said loudly, swinging her hair. "And arrr'e you 'aving fun, cherié?"  
He smiled "Sure" he said, looking a little surprised by how flirty she seemed to be.  
"Oh?" she said, smiling sweetly. "You arr'e about to 'ave even more fun, cherié!" she said, before getting nearer him, trying to lean in for a kiss.  
Cloe gasped from her secret spot, and had to pull herself back to not storm in and attack that girl. But before she came closer to Cameron, he backed away, putting his hands up.  
"Woah woah, there! What are you doing?!" he said, looking all angry.  
"Kissing yu', what does it look like?" she said, insulted.  
"I don't even know you!" he said.  
She looked shocked; she had clearly thought this was going somewhere.  
"You don't like to kiss me?" she said, trying to look innocent and sweet.  
"Look, you're a sweet girl and everything, but I don't even know you" he explained, and Cloe's stomach suddenly didn't hurt anymore: it was filled with butterflies.  
"Hm!" the French girl said, insulted.  
"Too bad, American boy! You don't kno' who I am" she said, smiling, hoping he would give in. He didn't: "Not interested", he simply said, walking away. This made her gasp; she clearly thought he would have asked interestedly.

Cloe immediately ran to Cameron, but when she stood in front of him, she didn't know what to say. She didn't want to confess she had seen all that had just happened, but she wanted to make up for what had happened earlier.  
"Cameron, I hope you're not angry at me. I didn't mean it like that, you must understand that."  
He looked relieved. "No, Angel, I'm not angry at you."  
She looked down for a while before looking into his eyes again,  
"how about ordering a drink for me now? I could use one", and this made him light up in a big smile.  
"Come Angel, let's go find the perfect drink for you."


	8. Chapter 7: Dylan gets what he deserves

"Did anyone find anything yesterday that could lead to solving this mission?" Jade asked, looking around.  
They were all pretty exhausted; they had come home late in the night. Though one of them seemed a bit more exhausted than the rest;  
"Uhrg, Jade, don't speak so loud! My head is going to explode!" Dylan put his hands on his head, squeezing his eyes together and looked angry around at the others, as if it was their fault he had such a headache.  
Sasha smiled knowingly. "Well, Dylan…" she said, quietly, then decided to speak a little louder, as if she wanted to provoke him: "MAYBE NEXT TIME YOU'LL REMEMBER THAT BEFORE POURING DOWN ALL THOSE DRINKS!"  
Dylan shouted and squeezed his eyes even further, "Sasha, stop! Please stop!"  
She laughed at him.  
Yasmin looked worried at her, "Sasha, that's not fair. I think he learned his lesson, stop tormenting him now, will ya'?"  
Sasha simply rolled her eyes while Yasmin went to get some water for Dylan.

"So, no one found any evidence or anything that could lead us to an idea on this mission?" Jade asked one more time.  
Nobody answered. "So that whole party was wasted for nothing?" she continued.  
"Well," Sasha answered, looking over at Dylan, "I wouldn't exactly say nothing. Some of us had A GREAT NIGHT, IT SEEMS, HA?"  
Dylan went to the sofa and laid down on it.  
Yasmin rolled her eyes at them.  
"Wasted?!" Cloe cut in.  
"We wore fancy dresses and was at an exclusive party, and you call that wasted?!" She looked shocked.  
"Well, we were kinda lucky to get into that party" Yasmin agreed.  
Jade sighed. "Yes, I know that girls, I'm just stressed out about this mission. Can we even solve it? I mean, it seems impossible."  
She looked down on her high-heeled-shoes.  
Sasha went over to her, sitting next to her. "Kool Kat, have we ever failed a mission?" She said with an attitude, and continued before Jade had a chance to answer, "No! So what makes you think we're not gonna solve this? Believe me, girly, we're gonna solve it in our own Bratz way!"

The girls felt more cheered up and talked about their previous trips and missions they had solved.  
They now believed in themselves again.  
All the while, Dylan was sighing in the sofa, "Girls, stop that yelling, will ya?" he turned around, laying with the back against them, with a pillow over his head.


	9. Chapter 8: Dylan, who?

They had the day off to do whatever they felt like doing; at nighttime they had to investigate again. Until then, the girls talked about what they wanted to do.  
Jade and Yasmin wanted to go sightseeing around in the area, looking for things to photograph for their upcoming articles.  
Sasha had already taken some pictures of the exclusive party-place, so she wanted to stay back and work on the article.  
Dylan only had one thing in mind: staying back and relaxing his sore head.  
Sasha looked in his direction as if he was a rotten fish, "So I'm staying back with him? Cloe, please tell me you're staying too!"

Cloe, who had been hanging her dress from yesterday neatly up, turned to her and said: "actually, I had been planning on going to see the shopping-area and take some photos that I can…" , but Cameron interrupted her, "I can go help you Angel, I can do the photographing while you check out the places!"  
He realized he had interrupted her, and blushed. "Sorry, go on", he mumbled.  
"No, Cameron, that's actually a brilliant idea! Besides, I had already promised to go skating with you. We can check the places out for that and take pictures for an article at the same time!"  
Cameron looked up, all happy, "yeah?" he said, smiling.  
"Totally! Just wait a sec, I'll go get ready".  
They both went to their rooms to change and find the skating-gear.

There was quiet in the main room of their hotel room, after Jade and Yasmin had gone out to do their sightseeing and Cloe and Cameron were in the rooms getting ready. Even though Dylan was quiet, perhaps even sleeping, Sasha couldn't concentrate.  
She sighed, trying to continue her writing on the article about the fancy party-place in this area of Paris. But she kept forgetting what she wanted to write, kept stopping in the middle of a sentence.  
She looked sideways over to the sofa where Dylan was. He didn't do anything that she could get mad at him for, so she couldn't really blame him for the interruptions. Though, she still felt like it was his fault. His presence in the room was enough for her to not be able to concentrate. She couldn't really place why, but figured it was her hate for him that made her not able to write when he was in the room.

After a little while he started snorking.  
Sasha at first got happy, though she didn't really know why, she was just happy for a reason to be mad at him, finally.  
"Could you stop that? I'm trying to concentrate!" She said loudly.  
Dylan woke up for a moment, turned to look at her, then fell asleep again. It felt good to yell at him, but only for a moment. It didn't help her writing, even though he was completely silent now.  
"Aghr!" she said out loud.  
He looked up, "did I snore again? I can't help it! I'm sleeping! How am I supposed to know…"  
she interrupted him, "No, Dylan, you did not snore! But I can still… hear your breathing!"  
He looked at her confused, then started smiling.  
"You're angry because I breathe?" He started laughing, until he realized that made his head hurt even more.  
Even Sasha could hear how dumb that accusation was.  
"you breathe loudly" she mumbled, turning to her article yet again.

Cameron and Cloe were finally ready for their day out, and they went out the door. Now the place was completely quiet.  
Sasha thought Dylan were asleep, and tried, yet again, to continue the article. She had to read it from the start because she had forgotten what she was writing about, but Dylan were not asleep. He was watching her from the sofa. She was sitting with the back against him, her beautiful long dark hair sat up in a ponytail, and every time she wrote, it bounced a little against her back. She bit her nails every now and then, when she was reading through the article. Dylan had no idea how difficult it was for her to write near his presence.

"Sasha?" he called quietly.  
Her stomach burst into butterflies, something she chose to ignore. She figured it was hateful butterflies, and now he called her yet again, why did he keep interrupting her?!  
She turned to him, all angry, "What is it, Dylan?!"  
He looked surprised at her.  
"Wow, relax Bunny Boo, I just wanted to ask for some water" he said, but he looked like there was more he wanted to say or ask about.  
She shook her head, looking down at the article.  
"You can't grab that yourself?" she asked in angry tone.  
She could hear him sitting up, and turned around to see him.  
"I suppose I could," he said, while looking like in pain.  
"Ugh, forget it. I'll grab it, and a water for myself as well", she said, as if that was the only reason she would help him; because she had to go anyway.  
While she was going over where they kept their water bottles in the mini-fridge in the room, she kept thinking about her nickname. She was so used to being called that, but hearing the words from Dylan's mouth was… different. Maybe because she hated him so much, and therefore he shouldn't be allowed to call her that.

She went back and threw the bottle to him.  
He grabbed it and drank half the bottle in a few seconds.  
"Take it easy, you're not an animal!" she commented while shaking her head.  
"Grr" he answered, while putting the top on the bottle again.  
She rolled her eyes.  
"Are you always this angry, or only at me?" he asked, leaning back in the sofa while watching her. That made her uncomfortable; who would have thought that? The confident Sasha could be uncomfortable.  
"Mainly at you", she answered, looking down at the article.  
"Can I read it?" he said, getting up.  
"Don't you have a headache to take care of?" she said, while shutting the pc half-way down.  
"I'm better. Your care has helped me tremendous", he said sarcasticly. She rolled her eyes again.  
"You look cute when you do that", he said, smiling, "rolling your eyes I mean. You do that at everyone or… mainly at me?"

Her face went blank and she didn't really know what to answer.  
"mainly at you" she said again.  
"Thought so", he said and sat down on the chair next to her. Then he leaned closer to her, looking at the pc.  
"So, can I read? I was there yesterday, I might be helpful. Maybe I picked up details you didn't". He almost sounded… helpful? _Normal_?

Sasha opened the pc again, letting him read the few lines she had written.  
"You haven't mention the bar yet. I can help you with that" he said, looking at her.  
For a moment she was speechless; it was like she saw another side of Dylan. Then she pulled herself together and came up with a sharp answer; "Sure you can, you were practically there the whole night. Perhaps you don't even remember much, now how good will your help be then?" but to this, he simply laughed. "I guess you're right! But then you just have to trust me."

What had happened? Did Dylan grow older over night? Or had she never noticed that there was more to him than the Dylan she knew?

He started explaining things and details, also from other places of the room and the place outside, details she hadn't even noticed. Together they wrote a perfect article about the fancy party-places in Paris.


	10. Chapter 9: Cloe & Cameron

While Yasmin and Jade found some cool spots to take pictures of and write notes about in order to write a great article, Cloe and Cameron were walking around the shopping-areas in Paris; both the areas with exclusive and fancy brands, the highstreet fashion brand and all the glamourous places that were worth writing her article about. Cloe tried on lots of fancy outfits while Cameron shot some great pictures of it all; the outfits, the places and the shops. Cloe was head-over-heels about all of it.  
"Oh Cameron, isn't it all amazing? I feel I could walk here every day and never grow tired of it!"  
He smiled and shrugged, "Yeah… I wouldnt mind that actually…", but Cloe didn't even notice his answer, she was too amazed about all the great shopping options.  
"This is so much bigger and better than our usual mall! I can't wait to show the girls!"

After hours of exploring the places, a little bit of shopping for Cloe and lots of laughter between the two of them, they decided it was time for a lunch break. Cameron carried Cloe's few shopping bags while they looked for some kind of a restaurant. They chose a small cozy one where they ate and talked; going through the pictures they had taken and laughing at the funny and silly poses Cloe sometimes had put up.

"Cloe, it has been such a fun day, I really enjoy being around you…" Cameron started, and Cloe nodded eargely.  
"Oh, me too Cameron, it has been so much fun! Thank you for the help. It's gonna be a great article, the pictures are amazing!" She drank a little of the coffee they had ordered after they were done eating their meals.  
"Ugh, is it just me, or does everything taste a tiny bit better in Paris?" She said, smiling dreamily.

She came back to reality and smiled brightly to Cameron: "Well, Cameron, are you ready to hit the skateboards?" and he smiled back, "Always, Angel!"

They returned to the apartment to drop off the camera as well as the shopping bags and to pick up their skating gear. As they entered the apartment, they heard laughter, and what they found was surprising: Sasha and Dylan were laughing together. As soon as the two of them realized Cloe and Cameron were in the room, they stopped laughing and turned to face them.  
"I see your headache is better, Dylan" Cloe said teasingly.  
Sasha looked down into the pc, her face turning a bit red.  
"And the two of you don't hate each other?" Cloe looked at Sasha, but she still looked down.  
"Anyways, we were just here to grab our things" Cameron said, trying to loosen up the strange mood and the quietness in the room. For once, Dylan actually didn't look all that confident and didn't look like he was ready to joke; in fact, he almost looked … ashamed? Like he got caught in something? Cloe and Cameron grabbed their stuff and headed out the door.

"Didn't Dylan seem… quiet? Or something?" Cameron said when they were outside the hotel.  
"Yes!" Cloe agreed, "or like we caught them in something!"  
Cameron nodded. "I've never seen him quiet. He always seem ready to joke around." They both thought about it.  
"And Sasha has always hated him strongly! How come they suddenly work together?" Cloe said, looking at Cameron.  
He looked down; couldn't keep the eye contact.  
"Well, I guess it was actually good the two of them stayed back while everyone was outside. Maybe they got a chance to finally talk things through and actually become friendly towards each other?" he suggested.  
Cloe nodded, "I guess so."

After looking around and asking a few people, they finally found the skating park. It was quite empty at this time of the day, just a few kids in some areas of the skating park, but otherwise they had lots of space to practice and have fun. They picked out a spot that seemed easy for Cloe, since she wasn't as experienced in skating as Cameron was.

"So, you think I can't skate as well as you can?" Cloe teased.  
Cameron laughed, "Angel, I believe in you, it's just that you haven't skated as much as I have". She looked at him and raised her eyebrow.  
"Oh, really?" He nodded. She didn't respond – she simply took her skateboard, put on the safety-helmet and jumped on the skateboard, and started skating. Up and down the tall ramp, showing off what she was able to.  
Cameron was amazed, "Wow, you improved! Have you been practicing?"

She got down the ramp again and smiled.  
"Well, I didn't want you to be better than me at this" she said, looking proud of herself.  
He smiled in respond, "I definitely have a lot more competition now" he laughed, "but why don't you want me to be better? Does it matter?" he asked curiously.  
"Ofcourse it does!" she said, surprised.

"How come? You are great at some many other things, Angel."  
She didn't really know what to answer. Why did it really matter if he was better at skating than she was? She had simply wanted to become as good as him – if not better. Something made her want to improve so she could show of to him.  
"I… well, I don't really know why… I just wanted to" she said, confused.  
He smiled. "I get it. Well, lets go skate then! Lets start in each end of the ramp, you there, me over here, then let's skate up and down between each other. Now that will be a challenge!" he laughed.  
"Sure thing!" she said, going to the one end of the ramp, while he walked to the other end.

"You're doing great Angel!" Cameron shouted as they skated back and forth.  
"You're just saying that, so I can tell you: so are you!" she laughed.  
He laughed loudly, and Cloe was a little surprised to see him so free and happy; he was usually quiet and shy. This was one of the only times she finally saw his happy and carefree side where he relaxes and simply laughs loudly. Perhaps this was the reason why she suddenly tripped when she reached the middle of the ramp, exactly in the same time as Cameron reached the middle, so she tripped and fell, taking Cameron with her in the fall.  
"Woah, Angel!" he shouted as they landed on the ramp, the skateboards flying to the sides.  
"Cameron!" she screamed, surprised. But she landed softly; on top of Cameron, who didn't land as softly as she did.  
"Ouch!" he mumbled. She was too surprised to acknowledge how they had landed.  
"Oh, Cameron, I'm so sorry!"  
He squeezed his eyes together before opening them up, looking more calm.  
"Angel, are you okay?" he immediately asked. She giggled, "I landed softly, you didn't!" Then she suddenly realized she was still laying on top of him.  
"Oh, sorry, are you pain?" she asked, trying to pull away, but he softly pulled her back, while looking into her eyes.  
"Cameron, are you okay?" she asked.  
He nodded, releasing her safety-helmet. "Great thing we remembered those", he mumbled.

She smiled, "They look stupid, but I can see how important they can be." He smiled and unbuttoned his helmet as well, putting both helmets beside him.

"Are you okay?" Cloe asked again, still not understanding why they still laid down, wasn't he in pain?  
He looked into her eyes and pulled some of her hair behind her right ear.  
"Angel, you're so beautiful…" he mumbled, and her stomach turned into sweet butterflies.  
"Did you hurt your head?" she whispered, afraid he only said these things because of a concussion. He laughed a little, "no Angel, I wore a helmet… remember?" they both laughed, before growing silent again. He still looked deeply into her eyes, and she started blushing.  
"Angel…" he said, and she blushed even more.

"I love when you call me that", she whispered. He smiled, and his eyes were full of love.  
"Can I kiss you?" he whispered back. Her stomach was full of butterflies at this point. Unable to speak, she simply nodded, leaning a little towards him, letting her lips meet his.

It was wonderful. This, she thought, felt like coming home. It was everything she had dreamt of, but never really known she had wanted so badly. She didn't know how long time they had been kissing; it could be hours, minutes, seconds, she had no idea. It didn't matter: she wanted time to stop, staying here forever was suddenly everything she dreamed of.  
She pulled back, looking at him again.  
"I'm in love with you, Angel. I have been since the day I met you", he whispered and blushed. She kissed him again, too happy to even collect words to make a sentence in respond.  
"I feel like I'm flying" she whispered against his lips. He pulled his arms around her waist, pulling her up as he stood up.  
"Oh, really?" he said, smiling teasingly. "I'll show you flying" he said, as he lifted her up in his arms and twirled her around in the air.  
She laughed loudly, "Cameron!" she shouted, and he stopped, turning her around again to kiss her one more time.  
"Oh, Angel… my beautiful Angel" he said, looking at her with love in his eyes and she threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly.


	11. Chapter 10: Cloe is shining

Day turned to afternoon and soon turned to early-evening, and Cloe and Cameron were still in the park. They laid on the ground in the growing darkness, looking up at the dark clouds and the stars that started to appear on the sky. Cloe laid close to Cameron in his arms, her head resting on his shoulder.  
She sighed, "This is amazing, Cameron. I never knew being in love could feel so amazing."  
He smiled, "I knew."  
She sat up fast. "What?!"  
He smiled even bigger, "Because I've been in love with you for so long. It has been hard but amazing being near you."  
She relaxed a big again,  
"oh Cameron", she laid down again. Cameron closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, relaxing and enjoying the moment.

"Cameron? It's getting late, we have to go" Cloe sat up.  
With his eyes still closed, he asked: "Why?"

"Because we have a gig we need to go to. You know, our mission? We have to investigate" she said, trying to make him come back with her. He kept his eyes closed while he smiled, "Oh, yeah. I remember."  
Then he pulled her right back down to lay with him.  
"Just a moment more," he simply said. She smiled, leaning into his shoulder again, kissing his cheek.  
He smiled and looked into her eyes, "My stomach is full of butterflies, Angel."

When they finally returned to the hotel main room, they others were already back and were getting ready for the night out.  
"Where have you been?" Jade asked.  
Cloe blushed, covering her face with her hair.  
"We have been so nervous, why didn't you come back sooner?" Sasha said, looking sharply at them.  
"Oh, come on guys", Dylan said, "Didn't I tell ya? No need to worry when Cameron is with her!"

Cloe went into the girl's room fast, trying to get her outfit ready in a rush. The girls looked around at each other; she behaved oddly.

In the room, Cloe found her dress she had planned to wear this evening. The party they would attend, undercover, this evening, was not as fancy as last night. Though, they still had to fit in and that included a pretty dress. She found a pretty red dress she had kept for this occasion. She put it on and touched up the makeup she already wore, this time with bright red lips for the evening. She brushed her hair through, curled it a bit again and a little bit of hairspray, and she was good to go.  
"Whew, you guys! I think this is the fastest I've ever been at getting ready!" She smiled.  
Sasha turned around, looking surprised at the sight of Cloe, "Wow, Angel, you look…"  
"Amazing" Cameron mumbled behind Sasha.  
They all agreed, "Yes, Angel, red really suits you!"

Cloe smiled, "thanks, you guys!" She twirled around, holding her dress out a bit, gazing up and meeting Cameron's eyes. He smiled, looking proud of her. She got butterflies in her stomach for the 100. Time that day. She had realized a lot that day; how she had always had feelings for Cameron, but never really realized how much he meant to her. He was always there, she needed him around, but she never understood how important he was to her. She smiled, and her eyes shined; she had never had this shine in her eyes before, and the girls noticed this. They smiled knowingly to one another but didn't comment on it.

"Are we ready to go?" Jade asked, when they were all done getting ready. They all looked amazing; Cloe in her red dress that reached right above her knees, Jade in a dark green short dress, Sasha wore a black dress that fit her well all over with a deep cut in the front, and Yasmin with a mint blue silk dress that also went right above the knees.

"We look perfect! We'll blend in so well!"

Before they headed out the door, they got a call from Byron. They put the camera-option on, showing him their looks for the night.

"Excellent girls, you'll fit in perfectly! May I add how great you all look? Anyways, back to business: remember to pick up and notice anything suspicious. Anything, big or small, could help us in this case! Have a great evening. Blend in and try to talk to people without revealing anything! I'll talk to you later."

The girls smiled to each other. Byron felt almost like family after all these years of knowing him.

Once they were inside the party-place, another place than yesterday, they looked around.  
"Where do we start?" Yasmin asked.  
Sasha held a finger under her chin. "Start mingling", she finally said. "We need to get any information we can get."

Cameron looked to the left, noticing a familiar red hair moving towards him.  
"American-boy! Remember meeee?" It was the French girl from yesterday. Cloe looked in the direction, her stomach twisting and her hands sweaty. It was that girl! She could feel her anger moving up inside her quickly.

"No", Cameron said, "who are you again?"

She laughed, putting her hand on his shoulder.  
"Oh, silly _américain_ boy, 'course you do!" she laughed loudly. "It's me! See?" She gestured down her body with the other hand, still holding his shoulder with the other.

He pushed her hand off his shoulder, looking at her as if she was something not worth his time.  
"Still don't ring a bell" he said, rejecting her. She looked flustered for a moment, but shortly after looking flirty again.  
"Well, I will simply 'ave to remind you, garçon américain" she said in a too-sweetly voice.  
He turned his back to her, taking Cloe's arm in his, moving away.  
"If you knew who I am, you would not walk away, mon chéri!" she shouted. Cloe looked over her shoulder to get a better look at her.  
"That's right! I'm the famous model of Pari', petite fille!", and with that, she started laughing mockingly.

Cameron looked at Cloe.  
"She really tries her best, ha'?" he said and rolled his eyes.  
"What if she's right? I mean, we're the fancy places! It would make sense she is here! This could be a big step in our investigations! She is in the field of it all!" She didn't know what to do; she wanted Cameron as far away from this girl as possible, but she also wanted the grab the chance to solve this case.

"I'll have to talk to the other girls about this!" Cloe said, before turning to find the other girls.

After having explained the situation with the girls, they agreed with her: "You're right", Sasha said, "we can't let this chance and opportunity pass. She could lead us to a big step in this!"

They thought for a moment about who should approach the girl. They finally agreed Yasmin would be a good option with her kind, sweet and gentle way of talking.  
"I'll try my best," she said, turning to the girl. They all looked at her; being the center of the party, dancing on a table with her short dress on and her red hair swaying around. Yasmin took a deep breath before heading in the girl's direction.


	12. Chapter 11: Yasmin, ma belle fleur

"What makes you think I want to talk with you?" the French girl asked Yasmin, looking at her as if she was way less than herself.  
Yasmin had found out that the girl was called Célia.

"Well, I hoped you would answer some questions…" Yasmin tried, but was interrupted: "Okay, girly, I 'ave question for you! You're friend with américain boy, oui?" Célia looked in the direction where Cameron stood with Cloe. Yasmin got tired of this.  
"Well, he's kinda busy, can't you see?!" She pointed towards Cloe, who talked with Cameron.  
Célia smiled confidently, "I'm sure we can work that out."

Yasmin rolled her eyes.  
"I have some questions", she tried again, but was cut off by Célia, "Ah-ah, petite fille. I will talk with him, or no one. Understand?"

Yasmin looked flustered at Cameron.  
"What if he doesn't want to?" she asked with a small voice.  
"I'm sure he does. Now, go ask him. Then I'll answer your questions, ma amie!"

Yasmin walked over to Cameron, not sure what to do or say.  
"Eh, Cameron… She won't answer anything without speaking to you." Cameron looked at her with big eyes. "Well, I don't wanna talk with her! Tell her that!"  
Yasmin looked down at her shoes, "It's not that easy… She won't take no for an answer…"

Angel interruptet: "I've had it! She can stick her opinion up…"  
Yasmin interrupted, "Angel, I know you're angry, but this is important!"  
Cloe gasped. "Not that important! Come Cameron, let's go. I don't wanna be in this room anymore!"

Sasha noticed what had happened and ran over to them.  
"Angel, you're acting childish! Come on, let's just grab the chance now that we have it!"  
Cameron shook his head, "I won't do it! I know what she's up to, I don't wanna be a part of it. There must be another way!" They looked over at Célia, who was now talking with a tall guy with blonde hair.  
"Doesn't he sorta look like a model?" Jade said in a low voice.  
"We'll have to find out. Yasmin, go over there and mingle again!" Sasha said, looking curiously at them.

As Yasmin approached, the guy looked over at her, forgetting all about Célia.  
"Oh-la-la, what have we here?" he smiled.  
"Hi", Yasmin said in a shy way. She was very uncomfortable, but really wanted to find out anything for this mission.

The guy ran a hand through his hair, before smiling brightly to her.  
"My name's Marceau. What's your name, beautiful?" He moved closer.  
"Eh… my name's Yasmin" she responded.  
"Oh, like the flowerrr?" he said, moving even closer.  
"Yes… I- I guess so" she said, feeling very uncomfortable. He lowered his face to her, whispering in her ear: "and you look like a beautiful petite flower, chérie, very beautiful." He was flirting – way too much, she thought. But she smiled, as if she was happy with this statement.  
"Thank you", she said. He smiled, as if he had won a prize. "So, what you doing here? I never seen you here before, ma fleur"

She forgot what to respond; she was too nervous with his – and Célia's – presence.  
"Well… I'm here with… my friends" she said, looking around. He also looked around, for a moment, before looking at her again.  
"Friends," he said. "Okay. Well, I'm your friend now, oui?" She put up a fake smile and nodded. He started to pose, acting like it was a natural thing to do.  
"You seen me before, oui? I'm a model" he said proudly. _So, he was a model, afterall._ This could help.  
"Oh, really? You've got the looks for it" she said, trying to sound all happy for him. He smiled down to her.  
"And so do you, ma petite belle fleur", he flirted again.

Célia rolled her eyes, "well, Marceau, I'll see you when you're not so busy with petite filles…", she went away, looking all angry at Yasmin on her way.

"Don't mind her, chérie, she just wants things… her way, you know?"  
Yasmin faked a smile. "Oh yes, I know," she laughed.  
"Marceau, I wanna ask some questions to you." He smiled at her, grabbing his drink and taking a sip.  
"Sure, chérie, anything. I've got all night," he said while blinking at her. Yasmin had to pull herself together, she didn't like this at all.

"I've heard some rumors," she started.  
"'bout me? Oh, all good I hope" he laughed. She started to relax a little, maybe he wasn't so bad?

"Not exactly about you. But I hear models won't do the catwalk lately? What's that all about?" He suddenly changed to serious again.  
"Where 'ave you 'eard that?!" he asked. Yasmin realized she had to ease him up a bit before, but there was sure something to find out here. Marceau knew something.

"Oh, just a stupid rumor. Could I have a drink, Marceau?" she said, while putting her hand on his shoulder. This worked; he smiled again, ordering a drink for her.

They talked for a while about lots of different things, she hoped this would ease him up a bit, before she could ask him once again.

In the middle of a conversation about his trip to Milan for a photoshoot some weeks ago, Yasmin's phone buzzed. She looked down – it was Eitan.

"Oh, I've got to take this!" She said, heading out the door, out in the streets, in the fresh air.

"Hi, Eitan! How's it going?" She smiled while holding the phone against her ear.  
"Oh, I was so afraid I called in the middle of the night! I didn't, did I?" he asked nervously. She giggled.  
"No, it's late in the evening, but it's okay." He sighed in the other end. "Great. Eh… how are you?" he asked. Yasmin smiled, and she had butterflies in her stomach by hearing his voice.  
"I'm fine. We're trying to solve this mission we're on" she explained.

"How's that going?"  
Yasmin looked at her manicured nails. "Well, not exactly great. But I'm sure we'll find out something very soon!"

"Fill me in when you know something," he responded.  
"Well, Yasmin, I actually called because I have some news, and I wanted you to be the first to know…"

She interrupted him, "you wanted me to know first?" and her stomach grew wild of butterflies.  
He sounded flustered in the other end of the phone, "eh, yes, I mean… you are the first, but I didn't mean it that way, eh… just…"  
She started to laugh. "I'm so happy you tell me first. What is it, Eitan?"

He took a deep breath before starting talking: "well, you won't believe this, but I actually…"

Someone opened the door behind Yasmin, and Eitan was interrupted by a newly familiar voice:  
"Yasmin, _ma belle fleur,_ you coming back inside?"

Eitan immediately stopped talking. He was quiet for a while, before saying: "Oh… I didn't realize you were… with someone… I'm sorry …. For… interrupting, eh…"  
Yasmin didn't know what to say. "Marceau, I'll be right there, just go back inside." He nodded and went.

"Eitan, I'm so sorry! You didn't interrupt anything. Please continue. It's totally fine you called, you didn't interrupt! He was just a model that I talked with inside, I tried to ask…"  
Eitan interrupted her talking: "A model?" he asked.

"Yes, he's a model, and I'm talking with him inside, I really think this…"  
Eitan interrupted her once again. "I didn't realize he was a model, Yasmine, I'm sorry for calling you then… We'll talk another time… eh… see you, then." He hung up, and Yasmin had a strange feeling inside. Eitan had sounded so happy when they talked, and he suddenly sounded so… strange and quiet?

She went back inside to talk to Marceau. She looked around and found him fast. He stood with a new drink for her and a bright smile, waiting for her to come over.


	13. Chapter 12: Yasmin learns a lesson

As the evening went on, Yasmin found it hard to get any information out of Marceau. He would talk for hours about anything and everything – except the information she needed the most. After a couple of hours, she decided that it wasn't worth the rest of the night. She gave up, but not completely: she asked for his number, saying they could "meet up some other time".

"Sure, ma fleur, I'll write it down for you!" He said, smiling brightly. She smiled back, but not as real as him.  
"Here you go", he said, pushing the paper towards her. She put it carefully in her purse, turning around to find her friends.

"So, did you find out something?" they asked, looking hopeful at her. She shook her head, "but I did get his number." This made the girls cheered up, there was still some hope.

"Has anyone seen Cloe and Cameron?" Jade asked. They all looked around, but the two were nowhere to be seen.  
"I wonder where they went… They both acted differently today" Jade mumbled.

"That reminds me", Yasmin said, "Eitan called me! And he sounded all happy until he suddenly didn't…. he completely changed throughout the phone call" she explained.  
Sasha raised her eyebrow, "well, what did you tell him? Did you offend him in any way?"

Yasmin thought for a second. "No, that's the thing. He said he had something to tell me, but when Marceau showed up for a second and went again, Eitan suddenly stopped talking and said he "interrupted". It was very strange", she added. The girls looked around at each other.

"Eh, that means he heard you with Marceau? Did you explain who he was?" Jade asked.

Yasmin thought again for moment, "Hm. I did, yes. I told him it was a model that I talked with inside." The girls looked shocked.

"Lemme' get this straight: you told Eitan you were talking with a guy MODEL, and you didn't explain why?" Sasha said, furious. Yasmin looked surprised at her. "Yes, that's what I just said!"

"Are you listening to yourself, Pretty Princess?" Sasha continued,  
"he's thinking you're with a perfect model now!"

Yasmin looked at both Jade and Sasha.  
"You mean, he thinks that… Marceau and I…?"

Sasha rolled her eyes. "Listen to yourself! What would you think, if he told you he was talking with a superstar back at home?"

Yasmin gasped. "Oh no! You're right! I hadn't thought of that! What do I do?" She looked around, not knowing what to do.

"Well, call him!" Jade said.

Yasmin went inside, trying to call him up, but he didn't answer. She tried one more time, but still no answer. Maybe he was working? She had no idea what the time was back at home. She left a voice-mail:  
"Hi, Eitan… It's Yas. I really need to talk to you. Please call me back!"

She put her phone back down in her purse, now with a bad feeling in her stomach. She had no idea what to do. Eitan had sounded so happy. She wondered what the news could be about?

"Cameron, didn't you want to talk with that girl?" Cloe said, while the two of them walked in the streets of Paris. It was dark now, but that made it all a bit more romantic, Cloe thought. Cameron had his arm around her shoulder as they walked.

"Angel, are you serious?"

She looked up at him as they walked. "Maybe…" she mumbled.

Cameron stopped walking, and so did she.

"Angel, there has never been anyone else than you. I've always only had eyes for you. You never noticed?"

She smiled. "Maybe…" she repeated, this time smiling.

He kissed her forehead and they continued walking.

It was starting to get cold, and Cloe shivered. Her dress had short sleeves and her arms were cold.

"Here," Cameron said, taking his jacket off, putting it around her shoulders. He wore a long-sleeved shirt.  
"Thanks Cam", she said, smiling to him.

They came to an empty street, no one around them. They stood under a light, lighting up the darkness around them. Here, they stopped, and Cameron pulled Cloe softly against the wall of the building behind them. With both arms beside her, holding against the wall, he bent down to her lips and kissed her softly. She wrapped her arms around him and tugged him closer, answering the kiss.

They stood like this for some minutes, before going back to the hotel.


	14. Chapter 13: Cameron, oh, Cameron

They all went back to the hotel room, tired and disappointed over the lack of evidence in the area. When they opened the door, they all gasped, stepping back.

Cloe and Cameron quickly got off the sofa, busted.  
"Eh… Hey, guys…" Cloe said, correcting her dress and smoothing her hair. Cameron blushed and looked like he had been busted in something very badly. He looked down, didn't know what to say.

"Cool!" Dylan shouted, laughing loudly. "Way to go, Cameron!"

Everyone felt awkward, but no one more than the shy Cameron. At this point, even his ears were red. He hurried into his room.

"Would you shut up, Dylan? As if you've never kissed anyone! How old are you, again?" Cloe said, defending herself. She felt humiliated and her instinct was turning angry at everyone else.  
Dylan started smirking, "Well, if you only knew what…" then he stopped, looking serious, taking a quick look at Sasha before he again looked at Cloe, mumbling: "nevermind…"

Jade sighed. "I'm so glad for you and Cameron, Angel. We all knew it would come."

Cloe looked surprised. "Well, I didn't!"

"Ofcourse you didn't," Yasmin said, putting her arm around Cloe's shoulder.

Dylan started walking towards they guys' room, "well, I better check on Cameron" he said, before closing the door behind him.

Jade sat down in the sofa, and the rest of the girls followed her. She sighed again, "Everyone falls in love lately", she said without explaining herself.

Cloe raised an eyebrow, "what's that supposed to mean?"

Jade pointed in Yasmin's direction, "Eitan and Yasmin have something going on."

Yasmin looked over at her, "No, we don't! And even if we did… we don't anymore…" She looked down in the carpet.

"What?!" Cloe looked confused around.  
Yasmin explained, "well, he wanted to call me, telling me some kind of news, but I cut him off right before I heard the news, saying I was talking with a model… I had no idea he would take it that way! Marceau was only a way to get information for our case." Cloe tried to follow all the details without getting confused. "Marceau?" she asked.

"Yes, a friend of Célia. The French girl", Sasha explained further.

"So anyway, he sounded all different after that, saying he interrupted and such. I'm so sad he took it the wrong way," Yasmin added, looking sadly at her shoes.

"Oh, Pretty Princess… You'll just have to explain to him", Cloe said.

"But you see? Everyone's either falling in love, have something going on or simply already in love!" Jade exclaimed. She turned to face Sasha, "I guess us single girls have to stick together in times like these", Jade joked, putting her arm under Sasha's arm, smiling.

Sasha looked down at the table, as if something really important suddenly laid on it. "Well… ha-ha… yeah" she said, blushing.

That didn't look like Sasha. She always had a smart comeback, some kind of sassy comment, but not right now; she blushed and kept studying the table.

"Would anyone be up for a late-night snack? I could use some room-service" Sasha said, changing the subject.

"I would!" Cloe said, "it's been a long night". The other girls agreed, and they ordered room-service through the phone in the room.

"How about the guys? You think they want some?" Jade asked, looking around.

"Some Cloe, that's for sure!" Sasha joked, and they all giggled, except Cloe, who blushed and smiled, looking shy.

Yasmin went to the door to the guys' room. "Dylan? Can you come out for a sec?"

He stepped out, closing the door behind him.

"How's it going in there?" Yasmin said in a low voice.

"Well, we're having some man-to-man-talk", Dylan proclaimed, smiling.

"Great. Would you like something to eat? We ordered room-service?" Yasmin asked.

Dylan thought about it for a moment, "Yasmin, you know I'm always hungry. Send some pizza or something in to us, will ya'?"

Yasmin nodded, going back to the girls.

"Cameron and Dylan are eating in their room, so I think we'll have some well-deserved girl time. We need that, don't we?" She asked.

The girls agreed; they could certainly use some time without the boy-drama they had faced this evening.

"You can call Eitan tomorrow, Pretty Princess. Let's just have girl-time now!" Sasha said, smiling.


	15. Chapter 14: Cloe's modelling dreams

The following day they met up with Byron.

"Excellent to see you all! Well, did you find out something last night?" he asked, with his thick British accent.

"Not exactly. Although, we did manage to pick up and phone number for model" Yasmin answered.

"Splendid! Now, girls, today I want you to go to a runway, see if you can pick up any signs. This case seems harder to solve than I first thought…" he looked around at the girls.

"Well, we better get going. Are you all ready?"

They all nodded and followed him.

"I don't get it, there's nothing that could show why they won't do the catwalk" Jade said, looking at the beautiful shining catwalk in front of them.

"Well, I'm sure we'll get a better idea from the catwalk", Cloe said, admiring the stage in front of her.

Sasha rolled her eyes, "Angel, we're not here to do modelling walks, we're here to solve a case. An important case."

Cloe shrugged, "It won't hurt trying. Maybe we'll see things more clear up there. I'm sure I would, anyway." She looked around. The stage was high, and she couldn't reach up.

"Cameron, will you help me up?" She asked, looking at him behind her.

"Sure, come" he said, lifting her up. She was able to reach up to the stage from there, and stood up, looking around. "Oh, wauw" she said, gasping and looking at the view from the catwalk.

"You could've used the stairs" Sasha said.

"They're all the way over there!" Cloe explained, pointing towards the end of the catwalk.

"But you still wanna… walk the catwalk? But not the way to the stairs?" Sasha asked with a raised eyebrow.

Cloe shrugged again, "yes", she simply answered. Then she started walking; she walked like she had done so many times before at home, imagining she was a real model. She turned around at the end of the stage, walking back towards them. At the end of the stage, she posed and blew a kiss, as if she was surrounded by an audience.

"You guys, this is so cool! You should try it!" she laughed. Byron smiled, shaking his head.

"I had forgotten how much fun you girls are" he mumbled. They all smiled, but was suddenly interrupted by the door opening in the end of the room.

"Ohh, you here to model, oui?" a man said, almost running to them.

"Well, we're not exactly…" Yasmin started, but the man kept talking.

"I wait and wait for you, finally you here!" he said, with a thick French accent, "I see you change your mind then, oui? Oh, I'm so happy!" he clapped his hands together.

Byron stepped forward, facing the man. "These girls sure have the looks for modelling, but they aren't actually models. We're here to ask some questions" Byron explained to the man.

"Oh…" the man said, looking around. Then he lit up, as if he had suddenly got a good idea, "we can figure that out! Oui! You can sign and be model! You want to be model, oui?" He said, looking eagerly around. Cloe started saying, "Oh, mr. model-man, we sure would like…" but Byron cut her off, "Listen, we're not here to do any modelling. We're here to find out why no one wants to model anymore" he explained, and the man stepped backwards.

"I... – I can't help you with that… Sorry" he said, backing away.

"Sure you can! You're in this field, you must know something!" Sasha said harshly.

"I don't know anything, I'm sorry…" and with that, he went out the door again.

"Oh no, what are we going to do now?" Jade asked, looking sad and disappointed.

"Well, there went our chance to do modelling! Thanks you guys!" Cloe said, angry.

"That's your biggest issue right now?" Sasha asked, and Cloe rolled her eyes.

Cloe went to Cameron, wanting to complain, and he simply listened, trying to comfort her, sitting next to her and trying to make her feel better.

"Well guys, while they're off being all cute and stuff, how 'bout we find out something important for once?" Sasha asked.

"That guy gave me the creeps" Dylan said, still looking in the direction of where the man had gone out.

"How about I call Marceau?" Yasmin suggested. The girls agreed that it might help.

Yasmin dialed his number, and he picked it up after the second ring.

"'Allo?" he asked.

"Marceau! It's me, Yasmin! Remember me?"

He was quiet for a moment, thinking. Then he said loudly and eagerly, "Ah! Yasmin, ma fleur! Yes, I remember you. So, you finally called? I've been waiting that!" he laughed in the other end of the phone.

Yasmin laughed shortly as well. "Marceau, could we meet up? I would really like to talk to you. Maybe you could help me with some model-stuff?"

He was quiet again. "Look Yasmin, I would help you, but not model-stuff, okay? Anything else, sure."

She bit her lip, looking at the other girls. They gesticulated with the hands to keep talking, meet up with him!

"Okay, then let's just meet and talk, how about that?" she asked.

"I would love that, petite fleur de Yasmine" he answered.

They agreed to meet at a café close in the area.


	16. Chapter 15: Charming Marceau

Yasmin tapped her foot against the floor, nervous. How would she approach this? Something seemed way off about this modelling-thing in Paris, and she couldn't figure out what was going on. It didn't help that no one seemed to want to talk about it.

Marceau entered the café, pulling a hand through his blonde hair, looking around. His skin was suntanned, and overall, he looked very model-material. His blue eyes scanned the room until they met Yasmin's eyes. He lighted up in a bright-white smile that would make any Colgate commercial jealous. He walked confidential towards Yasmine's table.

"Hello, my favorite flower", he said with his thick French accent. For a moment Yasmin admired him; he was simply so beautiful, it was hard not to acknowledge, despite she didn't find his flirty attitude attractive at all.

"Hi Marceau, thank you for meeting with me" she said, trying to sound professional.

"Sure, anything for you", he blinked. She almost rolled her eyes but fought against it.

"You weren't busy today?" She asked, hoping to make him spill something about the modelling gigs, but he simply shook his head.

"No, not today. And even if I was…" he said, reaching over the table with his hand, taking Yasmin's hand in his, "I would cancel for this beautiful sight", he said, smiling flirtatious. She could feel her hands getting a little sweaty, his charm was starting to grow on her. She looked down to ease the mood between the eyes, but he let her hand go, placed it under her chin and lifted her head a little up.

"Don't be shy, Yasmin; _tu est très très belle_, believe me" he said, looking into her eyes, deeply and intense. She took the chance of this, faked a shy smile and said:

"Oh, but Marceau… I'm nothing compared to you. I mean, look at you: you're a model!"

His eyes turned serious again, and he leaned back. He unbuttoned the leather-jacket he was wearing and looked out the window.

Yasmin bit her lips. _Why did he turn away whenever she mentioned modelling? _

But he looked at her again, smiling and seemed fine again,

"Yasmin, I don't think you've looked in the mirror…" he said, starting to compliment her even more.

After talking about different things, like Yasmin's school and his latest trips around the world, she thought she had to do something. She was getting desperate. Why couldn't they talk about the important stuff?

"Maybe we could go somewhere… more private?" she asked in a low-voice. She was desperate; she had to try her best in this.

He looked surprised but amused by this. "Yes! Come, let's go to the park" he said, grabbing her hand, paid for the coffees and went out the door.

It was a sunny day and Yasmin wore a black skirt as well as a tank top in blue. She knew blue fit her tanned skin. To this, she wore a small heel in the same blue color. The perfect outfit for a day out.

In the park, they found a spot in the shadow between some trees. It was a very romantic spot, and Yasmin couldn't help but for a short moment imagine her and Eitan in this exact spot. _Why did his image appear before her?_ She pushed that thought away again.

They sat down, looking at the ducks in the small lake in front on them.

"Wait un moment" he said and got up. Yasmin looked around the place, enjoying the beautiful sunny day.

Marceau came back with some flowers he had picked a little away from their spot.

"'ere" he said, holding the flowers to her, "flowers for the flower beside me."

She couldn't stop the butterflies in her stomach; this was such a sweet gesture.

"Oh, thank you Marceau! You're so sweet" she said, smiling. He sat beside her again. "Anything for la belle fleur with me" he explained, smiling. He looked proud for making her so happy.

He leaned towards her, closing his eyes, preparing for a kiss. Yasmin panicked. She was flattered and honestly, quiet charmed by him, but she wasn't thinking of kissing him. She didn't know what to do!

"Marceau", she whispered when he was close enough to kiss her. He opened his eyes, just few centimeters from her lips. "Yes, Yasmin?" he whispered back.

She didn't know what to respond. She wouldn't blow this chance to get close and get information, but she certainly wouldn't kiss him.

"Eh… before we do this, I have to ask something", she said in a low voice. He leaned backwards again, looking unsure.

"Yes?" he asked.

She looked down upon the flowers. "Why aren't you modelling?"

He sighed, and she looked at him, trying to read his reaction.

"It's so … what's the word in English…? _Compliqué_…. Oh yes, complicated" he said.

She was confused, "what isn't?"

He was quiet for a moment, collecting his words.

"It's hard to explain, Yasmin. There's a few reasons."

She finally felt like she got some kind of an answer and got desperate: "Yes, try to explain!" she tried.

"It's a long story… but it started a few months ago", he began, leaning backwards, looking up at the sky as if he started a long story.


	17. Chapter 16: The story, the whole story

Yasmin listened closely, trying to understand every part of this story – or rather case.

"There was this French model, she was known all over the world, everyone loved her" he started, "very beautiful, used for the big brands in the whole world."

He sighed and looked at Yasmin, "really, it's long story. You wanna hear it all?" he asked, his eyebrows raised.

She nodded, "Yes please, explain it all!"

He smiled at her enthusiasm, then looked serious again. "But I only tell this because we're good friends. Remember that, petite fleur, keep this a secret, will you?" he asked, looking nervous. That was a new sight; this beautiful, confident model looking nervously.

She nodded, "Yes Marceau, I just want to understand."

He sighed and continued telling the story of what had happened a few months ago.

"So like I said; she was a beautiful model, known all over the world."

Yasmin tried to ignore his charming and beautiful French accent and tried to focus on the story, trying to understand it.

"So then, one day, she stops. We say to her: why? She simply didn't answer, until few weeks later.

She say to us: I stopped, because I couldn't take more.

Now that's confusing, right?" he asked, raised an eyebrow. Yasmin nodded.

"So then we ask her what she means. She told us she had gained a little bit of weight, not enough to be seen, but agents and everyone was angry about her. She needed to lose that before any photoshoot. Now, that wasn't the first time she tried that: many times she was told this. Being called many ugly things in shoots, that gets to you. And this time… Well, she got enough", he explained.

Yasmin nodded slowly. "So, she quit?"

He shook his head, "Not exactly."

He stood up, reaching for her hand. She grabbed his hand, and he pulled her softly up. "Come, let's walk a little" he said.

After walking quietly for a few moments, he continued telling:

"Yasmin, you see, it's a little hard to tell this for me. I tried these things myself, it's a tough world to be in. I have been called things and dealt with this weight-issue before" he explained, and Yasmin understood. "Yes, it makes sense", she said.

"Well, suddenly a lot of models, all of them girls and women at first, talked together about their experiences with this" he said. "After a while, boys and men joined them, telling their stories. Many models were angry here in Paris suddenly", he continued, looking at the lake. The sun hit the water. It looked like diamonds floating around the surface of the water.

"So then what?" Yasmin asked.

"After a lot of secrets with talking in the modelling-area, secretly, we decided to make a protest. We secretly decided a date we would all stop, completely stop, modelling here in Paris, and that day, we all stopped.

At first our agents, brands and everyone was confused, but it got out why we stopped, and they were very angry.

They don't want this to get out in the world; what if other models in other places get the same ideas?" He smiled.

"But it can cost your careers! All of you!" Yasmin gasped. He shrugged, "some things are worth that", he simply said.

They were quiet for a while, still walking slowly. Yasmin tried to process it all.

"So, what's the plan now?" she finally asked.

He shrugged again, "we just hope that some brands, at least a few, will get the message and loosen up about this whole weight-issue. We're not thinking all brands will change, but a few, maybe" he said.

Yasmin understood it all. She was happy he had trusted her to tell her all this. She stopped walking, still holding his hand.

"Marceau, I'm so grateful you told me this" she smiled.

He shrugged, smiling down to her, "I trust you, ma belle belle fleur", he said, kissing her forehead. She blushed, looking down at her feet.

He pulled himself a little away from her again. "Well, Yasmin, what do you say 'bout going to eat some cake?" he blinked, referring to what he had just told her. She giggled, "that would be great" she said, and they went to a little café nearby.


	18. Chapter 17: Kiss & Tell

Yasmin was puzzled. She understood, oh how she understood the issue of the models, something that has been going on for a long time, she thought to herself on the way back to the hotel. Back to the girls. What should she do? She couldn't tell them, not when Marceau had trusted her. Marceau… she felt her heartbeat speed a tiny bit up, thinking about him. What was going on? He was totally not her type, and he was annoying – the type who was too confident, thought everyone him adore him, the type who was simply too much. Yet… She couldn't help feeling like there was more underneath. Maybe there was more to him than she thought at first sight? Maybe he was actually… very sweet?

She decided to make the way back to the hotel a little longer, to gain a little more time to think. She was sure she couldn't tell the girls, that would break the trust between Marceau and her. But what was she supposed to do? They were here on a mission – one they had to solve. She had the solution right near, but she couldn't tell anyone. She sighed, walked around a corner and saw a small market in the area. She went to that market. It was a beautiful market filled with flowers of all kinds. Roses, sunflowers… Jasmine. The Jasmine flowers smelled amazing.

Suddenly all she could hear was "Ma fleur" over and over again, the deep raspy voice of Marceau calling her the nickname he had come up with when he discovered her name. She laid down the flowers she had been holding and walked fast away.

What was going on? Why did she keep thinking about Marceau? Sure he was charming, but she was not attracted to him… or was she?

She decided to call him up, asking him to meet her again. She had to find out what was going on. Besides, she needed to talk more about the modelling-issue, maybe they could work together about this, she convinced herself.

"Sure Yasmine, I'll meet you in about half an hour" he said in the phone, "You couldn't get enough of me, ha'?" he teased. She giggled, "well, I also wanted to talk more about the modelling-thing…" she tried to explain.

"It's cool, don't worry. I know why you're really calling, sweet petite Fleur. Au revoir!" he said, before she had a chance to even answer. She smiled at the phone, putting it back into her purse.

She had only taken a few steps before it buzzed again. Maybe he couldn't make it?

Eitan, it said in the screen. Her stomach went crazy with butterflies. What was she supposed to do? More important: what was she supposed to say?

"Hi there, Eitan!" she said, trying to sound happy.

"Hey, Yas! You left a voicemail, saying I should call back. What's up?" he asked, sounding a little confused.

She had totally forgotten the misunderstanding between them.

"Oh yes, I did, didn't I?" she said, laughing, but the laugh didn't sound as real as she had hoped. Hearing his voice felt amazing, she had butterflies all over.

"Yes, you did" he simply said, sounding a little more angry this time.

"Well, Eitan… It was just to clear a misunderstanding… You see, I told you about this model I was talking with…"

He interrupted her; "Yes, Yas. You made that clear last time we talked." He almost sounded… hurt?

"Yes, but listen… It's not like… I mean, we're not… we're just talking!" she said, trying to collect her thoughts. She had no idea how to explain it in a way that he would understand. All she wanted to say was: I'm not his, I wanted you to know that, I'm ready for anyone else… or perhaps just someone.

But she couldn't say that.

"You're talking?" he asked, wanting her to explain.

"Yes, you see, I met him through this mission, but that evening it came out wrong! We're not… doing anything! I only talked with him" she tried to explain.

"Yas, what is it you're saying? And why are you telling me this?"

She felt hurt; mostly, because she didn't know how to explain. Secondly, why was she telling him this? Why?

"Well, I- I thought you should know"

"Okay… well, thank you" he said, confused.

There was quiet for a bit. She bit her lip, not knowing what else to say.

"There she is!" suddenly a well-known voice said behind her, not close, but close enough to be heard through the phone. She instantly regretted wanting to meet him; she wanted to stay on the phone with Eitan.

He came nearer, still talking, "I came as fast as I could, and here, a flower I found on my way to my fleur" he said with his thick French accent. There was no way Eitan couldn't hear this, and Yasmin panicked.

Eitan was quiet in the other end. Yasmin didn't know what to say; to Eitan and to Marceau.

Finally, Marceau said, "well Yasmin, take the flowers, smell them", holding them to her. She took them without feeling any emotion towards the flowers.

"Yas, why did you call me? Why are you doing this?" Eitan said, and this time there was no doubt: he was clearly hurt.

"I-I'm sorry Eitan, it's not like you…-"

He interrupted her, "Why, Yas?" he simply asked.

"Eitan, I will call you later" she said.

Why was he hurt? It's not like we're dating or anything… Eitan and I have never had anything together… I think…

Yet, why did she feel like she had to explain, then?

She turned back to Marceau, who looked hopeful at her. "Smell the flowers", he said again, smiling. She smelled them, but didn't really notice the smell.

"So what was that phone-call all about?" he asked, looking confused. "Do you have a boyfriend?" he then asked.

She shook her head, "No, Marceau, I don't", she tried to smile.

He sighed, relieved. "That's good, Yasmin, because otherwise I couldn't do this" he said, leaning forward, and before she even realized what he was doing, he pressed his lips against her lips. He kissed her for a moment, but she was too surprised to kiss back or to move away from him. When she finally realized what was going on, she pulled herself back, shocked. Marceau looked hurt.

"Was that wrong?" he asked.

She shook her head, confused. She had wanted this… wasn't this why she had called him? She looked at his beautiful lips.

"No, it wasn't wrong…" she whispered. She then finally took a decision, leaning forward, kissing him, and this time, she really kissed him.

Marceau smiled at her lips, moving closer, putting his hands on each side of her face, pulling his tongue softly out, meeting her tongue. This surprised Yasmin, but she intended to find out what it was like; afterall, she had wanted this.

Eitan's face kept popping up in her head, and she pushed the image away. No, it doesn't mean anything. Marceau, Marceau, Marceau, she repeated to herself.

After a few seconds, she pulled herself away in shock. This was wrong. It felt completely wrong. She thought she wanted to kiss Marceau, but it felt like it was completely wrong.

"Did I do something wrong?" He asked, leaning backwards again. She got up, backing away from him.

"No… No, it's me… I- I'm sorry" she said, turning around and walking fast back to the hotel.


	19. Chapter 18: She kissed And she told

"Pretty Princess, what's wrong?!" Sasha gasped when Yasmin entered their hotel room. Everyone looked shocked at Yasmin; with tears running down her face, a look in the eyes as if her heart was broken, she couldn't hide how she felt.

"I kissed him!" she said, panicking, "I- I don't know what to do… I shouldn't have done this, I don't know-"

"Kissed who?!" Sasha interrupted. Yasmin looked up in surprise, as if they would all know who.

"Marceau! It was Marceau!" she said, annoyed.

"But what about…" Jade started, but Cloe cut her off, whispering: "Not now, Kool Kat."

Jade looked at Cloe with an "oh, I get it"-look.

The girls went over to Yasmin, tugging her into a hug.

"Why on earth would you kiss him?!" Sasha said in her usual no-filter-whatsoever type of way when she confronted someone. Cloe looked at her harshly, "Sasha, you can't just ask that!"

Sasha shrugged, looking back at Yasmin, who still cried endless tears of regret and heartbreak.

"I don't know!" she shouted, "I really don't know! I thought I wanted to… I mean, I don't really like him like that, but he was kinda sweet and brining me flowers, charming me… But the kiss felt so wrong! What should I do?"

"Well, for starters, you shouldn't kiss on our potential workpartners in cases another time" Sasha said harshly, and both Jade and Cloe shouted at the same time: "Sasha!"

Sasha simply shrugged one more time, she couldn't see why it was wrong; after all, it was Yasmin who had perhaps destroyed the source for information by doing this.

Yasmin looked confused, broken and sad at all of them.

"Pretty Princess, no worries. Everyone makes mistakes, and it's not like it's a mistake! Right Cloe?" Jade asked, looking over at Cloe for help.

"Exactly! Besides, I'm sure that boy has some charming skills that will win any girl over, even if they don't really like him! Let it go, Yasmin, you've learned a lesson."

They both smiled at her, and she almost smiled back. She wiped away a few more tears.

"Thank you guys. I feel a tiny bit better now… Although… Eitan…"

Sasha, Cloe and Jade looked at each other knowingly.

Yasmin bursted into tears yet again. She explained about the phonecall, how she might have destroyed everything.

Sasha sat at the sofa, looking over at them, still angry. "Well, Yasmin, that's what you get for running around town, kissing boys, and oh yes, not just any boy, but the one that could be helpful for our case!"

Cloe turned to look at Sasha, angry, "Will you stop it, Mss." Die-like-an-old-maid?!"

Sasha gasped; this hit right in her heart. She felt insecure and not the flirty type, and therefore this exact though had crushed her mind plenty of times.

"Well, excuse me, all your flirtatious little girls! There are more important things than guys in life! Just because I focus on this important case?! What's suddenly wrong with you? What about we stick together through it all?" She almost yelled now.

"Well, you started!" Jade accused. Cloe nodded, "Yes! Can't you see that Yasmin is broken? Are you sticking together with us now, ha'?"

"You guys crossed the line with this", Sasha mumbled on her way out the door.

"Well, so did you!" Jade shouted back at her, right when the door closed behind Sasha.

After a few hours of eating ice-cream, watching movies in the main room of their hotel room, Dylan and Cameron came back to the hotel. They had been out skating and looking around the area.

"Check out the CD we found, it's some French rock band! They're pretty cool!" Dylan said, as he entered the room. "Woah, what's going on here?" he asked, referring to the empty boxes of ice-creams, pillows and blankets all over the place. "You're even wearing pyjamas?!" Dylan continued, "girls, it's only 4 o'clock?"

Cameron looked over at Cloe, confused. She got up and dragged him with her, a little away from the others. She whispered shortly about what had happened without too many details.

"Oh, I get it", he said, looking over at Yasmin, "well, enjoy some girl-time. We'll head out to grab something to eat and we'll bring back some dinner for you", he looked down at the empty ice-cream boxes. "Unless, you're not hungry anymore…"

Cloe giggled, "No, please bring something back for us. And Cameron?"

He looked down at her, smiling, "Yes, Angel?"

She kissed him softly on the lips. "Thank you", she whispered. He tugged her in a hug, before turning to Dylan again.

"Dylan, let's go grab some food, I'm starving, and all we have in the room is ice-cream and snacks. Let's get some real food, right?"

Dylan looked around, still confused. "Yeah, okay. I'm kinda hungry too" he said, turning around to go.

"Wait a minute, where's Sasha?"

The girls grew silent.

"We had a fight…" Jade then finally said.

"A fight about what?" Dylan wanted to know.

"Dylan, let's go. Guess there's just some things us men don't understand", Cameron said, trying to ease him up a bit.

Dylan laughed a bit, "yes, for sure! Uhgr, girls sometimes…" and with that, they went out the door, and the girls looked at each other. Finally, for the first time that afternoon, Yasmin actually laughed a bit.


	20. Chapter 19: Time to confess

"Sasha, you have to talk to her. Apologize to her!" Jade said.

Sasha looked surprised, "why though? I'm not wrong about what I said" she said in her well known diva-way. Jade rolled her eyes.

"Fine. It's not like you don't ever make mistakes that we have to have accept. We don't comment and bash you down whenever you do something wrong; we support you. Like friends do." Jade said, walking away without a chance to hear what Sasha had to say to that.

She went back into the room where Yasmin and Cloe sat.

"She won't apologize. I don't understand her!" Jade said.

"Hey, you guys, it's totally fine…" Yasmin tried, "I'm the one who made a mistake" she went on.

"Stop it, Pretty Princess! You didn't make a mistake! You explored some feelings that were between you. It's as simple as that!" Cloe said, this time more angry, "it's not fair! We're trying to solve a case TOGETHER, and she starts this drama! Why?"

Yasmin sighed, looking at the floor, looking like she was taking a tough decision. Then, she finally looked up at them, saying: "You guys… I have to tell you something else." They looked surprised at her, what more could there possible be in this?

"Marceau… He confessed the model-issue to me, he said he trusted me…"

"WHAT?!" both Jade and Cloe gasped.

"Yes… But like I said, because he trusted me…"

"So you were charmed about his way of trusting you?" Jade asked.

"That… and the way he always complimented me and saying sweet things… It just felt so good whenever he told me I was beautiful" she admitted, blushing.

Cloe sat down beside her, "Oh, I get it Pretty Princess, I think we all do. It's not a mistake; what happened is completely normal. You fell for his charm and tested the feelings out. That's only great, Yasmin, that way you learned a new experience – it felt wrong, but if you hadn't tried, you would keep thinking about what could have been. Right?" Cloe said, smiling.

"Yes, but… I don't know. I feel guilty." Yasmin answered.

"About what?" Jade asked, confused, "Don't say Eitan… You're not together, right?"

Yasmin shrugged. "No, we aren't. But things have seemed different between us lately, especially before we traveled here. He seemed… different, and it felt like something was going on."

Jade shrugged, "Nevermind about it Yasmin, you can't change it now."

Cloe looked at her, thinking. "No, Yasmin, I think you should explain to Eitan, have a real talk. Not by phone, though – you need to tell this in person as soon as we come home."

Yasmin nodded. "I will do that"

"…So, you can't tell us what Marceau told you?" Jade asked.

Yasmin shook her head. "I think there's only one person who can help in this. There's only one girl who has enough power in her to do anything in this… and that girl won't talk to me now" she said.

"You think Sasha can help?" Cloe asked confused.

The girls sighed deeply.

"She's the only one I think can have the power to solve this"


	21. Chapter 20: 2 strong girls make plans

It took a lot of persuasion and sweet-talk to Sasha from Jade and Cloe, but she finally gave in. She HAD to talk to Yasmin, it was something important, they had told her.

"What is it, then?" She asked, when she entered the room where Yasmin sat. Jade and Cloe went out the door, closing it to let the girls talk out.

"Sasha, I'm really sorry about all this", Yasmin said, "He wasn't my type, and I didn't fall for him. But hearing that I'm beautiful and getting pretty flowers from him… I fell for that. And I kissed him. It was wrong, and-"

Sasha cut in: "Wrong? You mean, unprofessional!"

Yasmin took a deep breath, "Yes, that too. We needed and still need him for information. And it was a stupid move from my side, but Sasha, you know what? I will not apologize any more now. I'm an adult, and who I choose to kiss is not your business!" She felt strong in this moment.

Sasha looked down, sighing. There was quiet for a moment, and Yasmin decided she wouldn't break the silence. The next move should be Sasha.

Sasha finally broke the silence, "You're right, Yasmin. I'm sorry I said all these things… It isn't my business who you choose to kiss or fall for. I just really wanted to solve this case, and he seems like the only option at the moment. I'm so afraid you messed it up so we can't solve this, and Byron will feel that we failed him. But Pretty Princess, I shouldn't have reacted like that – especially because you were broken. It was totally wrong from me, and I'm so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?" She asked, looking like she really regretted this.

Yasmin smiled at her, "Bunny Boo, I already forgave you. Let's forget this now." They hugged for a moment, happy to having talked it through.

"So, I have something important to tell you. Before the kiss, he actually confessed to me about everything" Yasmin started.

"What everything?" Sasha asked, confused.

"Everything! About the whole model-issue!"

"WHAT? Why didn't you say anything? You have the key! You have the solution, the reason behind it all, we know it all now, we can…-"

Yasmin cut through the long talk; "Take it easy, Bunny Boo, let me explain."

And then she explained everything, about the modelling-industry and the unhealthy demands, the issues models face everyday, the protest that was going on, the brands that were getting more and more desperate to get the models back.

"That's amazing! I can't believe they all decided to do this! They're so strong together" Sasha said, looking impressed.

"Well, they're not expecting all brands to accept this, obviously. But a few brands will be fine" Yasmin explained.

"Well, we better do something. You said the brands and agencies getting desperate now, right?" Sasha asked eagerly.

"Yes they are… Do you have any idea how we can be helpful?" Yasmin asked.

Sasha nodded confidently, "I've got just the right plan!"


	22. Chapter 21: Desperate Times

Sasha hung up the phone. She had talked things through with Marceau, without getting into details about Yasmine and him, but with lots of details about the protests of the models. They talked through about their plans, and Sasha felt ready; she had gotten a lot of helpful information and some important numbers to call. Before she did all this, she contacted Byron to fill him in. Maybe he could help with some further information and they could work in different ways and collect every information afterwards.

"Byron", she said, when he picked up the phone, "I have so much to tell you! Yasmin found out a lot of helpful information, and I found out some important people we can contact. Now, listen…"

She filled him in on it all.

"That's amazing!" he gasped, "I knew I could count of you girls! Now, Sasha, do what you told me you have planned, send some of the phone numbers to me and I will work from here as well. I'll come to your hotel room tomorrow morning where we can fill each other in on everything we have found out, what do you say about that?"

"That's a deal!" Sasha said eagerly.

After having talked with Marceau earlier this day, he had also agreed that it would be a good idea to fill in Jade and Cloe; she had explained to him, how much they all could help, if they all worked together in this. Marceau had agreed and felt any help would be great.

Therefore, Yasmin explained everything to Jade and Cloe, who both gasped, wondered and smiled about all the new information.

"We're so close girls, let's do what we do best: work together and solve this!" Sasha said.

Sasha took a deep breath, before calling the first number on the list. It was one of the brands, an important person within that brand that you couldn't reach unless you had this private number. The number she had from Marceau.

"Hello?" the person said. It was a man. Ha, I knew it, Sasha thought. Now she had to use her strong persuasive talking power. She started the conversation by telling a little about herself and a lot about the desperate situation the brands were in.

"You're getting desperate, right?" she said, "Well, you won't have to, if you follow as I say. Now you listen to me, because…-"

She went on and on and discussed a lot. She couldn't decide whether it helped or not, the man was very angry at the other end. As they hung up, she felt a little empty; what if this wouldn't help at all?

Well, she thought, it sure won't help anything if I don't try! And with that, she called the next number on the list.

The next day the girls met up with Byron in the hotel room.

"What do you think, girls? Did it help?"

They all sighed.

"I doubt it" Jade finally said. "They were angry when we called and wouldn't talk, yet we kept pushing to talk with them. I don't know how much we have helped" she admitted.

"Well, you did your best, so let's see!" Byron said, "I also called some of the agencies and brands. We will have to wait!"

The girls sighed again. What if they couldn't help and solve this at all?


	23. Chapter 22: Sunshine after the rain

The days went on, and they had no idea what to do. They couldn't do more now; they had talked and done their best, now all they could do was waiting. And that was the hardest part, in fact. They didn't know what to do; they didn't really want to go out and have fun, they were too nervous for that, and all they wanted was to solve this.

"You guys, we can't keep sitting in here! How about we go and check out the spa-place they have close to our hotel?" Jade asked.

Spa-time had always been something the girls enjoyed together; getting face-masks on, mani-and pedicures and lots of girl talk had always helped them whenever they felt down.

"Well, what do you say?" Jade asked again, looking around at the girls.

They slowly agreed.

They all went in to find the equipment they needed for the trip down the corner of the hotel to check out the spa-place and went ahead down the hotel lobby and into the street of Paris to find the place.

"I don't know what we'll do, if this hasn't worked at all", Yasmin said when they sat with their face-masks on, eating snacks while their pedicures were drying.

"Me too, Pretty Princess. We have done all we possibly could" Jade said.

Cloe sighed. "If we don't solve this… Who knows if Byron would ever want us to come on a case again?"

Sasha ate some of her snack, while looking around. "How about we try to forget it, and have a little fun now that we're finally here?"

"Forget it? How could we even do that? I can't" Jade argued.

"Well, talk about something else! It isn't that hard, Kool Kat!" Sasha said, almost getting angry, "You always focus on the wrong things, why don't we just relax a bit, you just-"

She was interrupted by her phone ringing. Unknown number. She was too shocked to do anything at first.

"Well, pick it up, Sasha!" Yasmin said loudly.

Sasha hurried to pick it up.

"Hello, it's Sasha?" She said.

The other girls couldn't hear what was said in the phone. All they could hear was: "aha? Yes, absolutely. Well, that's… good! Oh really? Yes, sure. Oh, you do? You think? Oh, wow, thank you. Okay. Yes, then. I'll have to talk with them… Yes. Okay. I'll come back to you later, okay? This number? Oh, okay, I will write it down, wait a minute"

She grabbed some paper and wrote a number down. She almost felt ridicoulous, discussing something important while she was in her bathing-robe and with a green face-mask on, but she had to continue being serious about this.

"I'll talk to you later!"

She hung up the phone, turned around to face the girls.

"Well?" Jade said, and they all held their breath.

"Girls, you won't believe this!"

"Tell us, come on!" Yasmin almost shouted.

"One of the brands called me back. He said they were desperate now, and was willing to agree to some new terms in their brand. They are willing to hire some girls who aren't as skinny as they used to hire" Sasha explained.

"Oh, wow, that's amazing!" the girls shouted.

"And guess what?" Sasha continued.

The girls look confused. Was there more to this? What could that be?

"Well, he heard about our magazine, checked it out and noticed some pictures of us. Well, he thinks we would look great on his next runway show, even though some of us aren't as tall as the usual models. But he thinks this is a great way to show the new changes in their brand, by letting other models in different heights walk the runway! What do you think?"

Cloe couldn't help but scream a little in surprise and happiness.

"Pinch me, pinch me, this isn't real!" she shouted.

Sasha pinched her softly, "It's real, Angel!"

"Oh, I have to call Cameron, right now!" she went on, looking happy.

"This is so great!" Yasmin and Jade said.

"I can't believe this! We actually helped the case a little!" Sasha went on. They all hugged each other, feeling proud about themselves.

Later that day, Sasha called the number back, telling him that they really wanted to take this chance with his brand. He was also very happy about them wanting to help him getting his models back.

That evening, a few more brands and agencies called the girls back, telling them that they had decided to change their model-terms as well, not too much, but it was a start. Not a lot of brands, but they had helped in this mission. The girls celebrated with Dylan and Cameron in the hotel room, opening up a champagne and celebrated in their hotel room.

"My Angel is actually going to model", Cameron said to Cloe as they stood privately on the balcony of the hotel room. She smiled, "I've always dreamt of walking the runway, Cam."

He nodded, "I know that" he smiled. He pulled her closer, kissing her nose softly. "You're gonna do great" he whispered. She looked at him, suddenly panicking. "What if I don't do great? What if I … oh no, what if I fall, Cam? It will be so embarrassing, all the cameras will pick it up, I will be shown in the news and on the internet, people can see it over and over and over and…"

He stopped her desperate talk with a deep kiss, pulling his tongue into her mouth, meeting her tongue softly. All her worries and panic went away just like that; she leaned in to the kiss, forgetting everything else.

"You're gonna do great, you will look beautiful, you're going to shine, just like you deserve" he whispered against her lips. She smiled and kissed him again.


	24. Epilogue: Dreams do come true

"I'm so nervous" Yasmin said in a low voice. "How long before it's our turn?" Jade asked, almost whispering. "Only a few minutes. How is my makeup?" Sasha asked. They checked each other's makeup and hair, correcting the dresses. All except one; Cloe were looking through a tiny whole in the curtain they stood behind.

"Girls, I can't find him! He promised he would come early to make sure he would see it all! What am I gonna do? I can't find him! Oh no, I'm gonna panic, you guys, I can't breath, I-"

Cloe started breathing harshly as Sasha took her by her shoulder. "Cloe, relax! He will be here, don't worry!"

"No he won't! He should be here already, but he isn't!" the panic took over, and she sat down on the chair behind her.

"Angel!" She heard the well-known voice that she dreamt of and could spot anywhere. She immediately got up. "Over here!" she called back, and he turned at the corner, looking at them. "There you are, Angel, I couldn't find you!" he ran towards her, holding up a beautiful bouquet of red roses. "Oh, Cam" she whispered, tears forming in her eyes. "No no, don't cry! You're gonna walk the runway real quick" he said, touching her softly on her chin.

"Thank you, Cam." She said, kissing him softly.

He kissed her softly on her ear and then whispered, so only she were able to hear it: "I love you, beautiful Angel." Her stomach went crazy of butterflies and she tugged him in closely.

"I love you too, Cam. I always will."

"Girls, you're on next! Are you ready?" a woman said to them, before talking in her headset again.

"Okay girls, this is the moment we've been waiting for, dreamt of and prepared for. Are we ready?!" Sasha said.

The girls got ready, standing together in a line of 4, ready to rock the runway.

"Let's do this!" Yasmin said, loudly.

Cloe looked once more at Cameron. He looked proud in his eyes, blinking once at her while miming: "you'll do great", before he hurried down the corner, down the stairs, into the crowd to get a perfect seat to see the girls.

Dylan already sat in the seats, keeping a spot ready to Cameron.

"How are they?" he asked Cameron, when he sat next to him.

"Nervous, but I'm sure they'll rock it better than any of the models who walked tonight"

Dylan smiled knowingly, "of course they will. They're amazing at this!"

The light shined brightly at the girls as they entered the long runway. The music played loudly, a perfect song for their steps as they walked down the runway, smiling and posing at the end of it. They all shined like never before, and nobody in the crowd would ever have guessed that this was their first time modelling. They all did one last pose before going backstage again.

Both Dylan and Cameron headed up to them in the backstage area.

"How was it? You looked amazing up there!" Dylan shouted.

"It all went so fast" Jade said, "I thought it would take forever to walk that runway, and now I just want to do it again!"

They all laughed; relieved that it was over, proud that they did it so well, happy for their new experience.

Cameron pulled Cloe aside, kissing her again. "You looked so beautiful, it's like you were born for this!"

She smiled shyly. "Oh, Cam, as much as I enjoyed it, I think I would be way too nervous to do it as many times as the models do. I'm happy for the experience, but actually, I really look forward to get home and back in school again"

Cam looked surprised at her, "I'm sorry, have you seen Cloe somewhere?"

They both laughed. "No, Cam, I'm serious. I would never want this lifestyle, now that I've tried it. I'm way too nervous about things like this, besides, I'll miss doing sport in school"

Cam smiled, "I would also miss playing football with you, not to mention skating, wow, you got really good at that!"

She laughed a little, "well, only so I could beat you!"

He pulled her into a hug, "you sure won, but not the skating part; you won my heart" he whispered, and she laid her head against his chest, closing her eyes in happiness.

They could hear Byron long time before they saw him.

"No, this is ridiculous! I know them, it's like my family… No, they are not real family… No but I said they feel like family! …. That IS the same, yes…. No, you listen to me…. No! Wait, call them out, ask them if they don't know me…. Hey, wait!"

The girls giggled, before they headed outside the door.

"It's true, we know him, he's called Byron, and he IS actually like family. Come in, Byron!" Yasmin said.

Byron shook his head and went into their private room. "I can't believe this! My girls are all grown up now, and even so famous I can't even enter your room because of security!" He laughed loudly.

They all laughed a moment, before turning serious again.

"I'm so proud of you all. Not only did you solve this fast and in your own Bratz-way, you managed to do it so well, that you… well, look at you! You're all stars! You rocked that runway. In fact… I had to dry a few tears away… But don't ever mention that again, okay?!" He laughed a little. "Come here girls," he said, as he opened his arms widely. They all gave him a big hug, relieved about the case being solved and the events they had been at. "You did so well" he said, sounding touched.

"We're just happy we solved this as good as we did; though it seemed impossible a few times…" Yasmin said, and Sasha interrupted; "… and made us do and say stupid things", at this she winked, and Yasmin giggled about it. "But at last, we solved it the best way we could: by working together and sticking together through it all!" Cloe said loudly.

"Well girls, how about we celebrate? I know this fancy club where we would be very much welcome tonight, thanks to you girls!" Byron suggested.

They all agreed.

Just as they were about to head out the door, Byron turned around, looking at them teasingly. "I hope you're ready for your next mission soon" he said, smiling brightly.

The girls gasped, before laughing again.

"Oh Byron, of course we are" Jade said. "But tonight, let's just enjoy and celebrate this mission we've solved!" Sasha quickly said.

With that, they went out the door, ready to take on the night in Paris and celebrate like the superstars they were for this night.


End file.
